Friday Night (and the lights are low)
by California-Italian
Summary: In which Sara and Jax are great at all forms of dancing, Ray is decidedly not, Mick, Len, and Rip pretend to hate it, Stein is full of surprises, and Kendra's just trying to cut a rug. Not shippy; just briefly mentions canonical pairings. Legends family bonding.
Like all great things, it starts out of boredom. Jax, as it turns out, is not a huge fan of sitting around in silence, so he manages to cajole Rip into letting him have access to a music library that includes every song ever released all the way up until the day they left in 2016. Initially, there's a lot of Fifth Harmony and Beyoncé, but after a lot of complaining ( _"Jefferson, this is the third time we've heard 'Work from Home' in an hour, can we please listen to something else?"_ ), he finally relinquishes control to everyone else.

Jax sticks to the 2010s pop music, but he can occasionally be found listening to classical music while tinkering with the Waverider with the explanation that it helps him get out of his head and just focus on the gears in front of him. Sara is also a fan of classical music when her bloodlust starts to ascend but is otherwise more interested in early 90s bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Oasis even though she'd been trained in hip hop during her youth and ballet and common partner dances by the League. Stein, to everyone's surprise, _hates_ classical music and loves 60s rock because "who doesn't love the Beatles?" (Leonard, Kendra, and Jax). Mick tends more towards 70s disco, and his partner will try to drown him out with ACDC or a similar classic rock band. Kendra is a fan of any type of music she can belt out in a key so high everyone would call showing off it wasn't so amazing. Ray, to almost everyone's delight, has an identical music taste to Leonard's (the ex-villain does not share in his teammates' joy at the discovery).

Because none of them can actually agree on anything, they make a rule that whoever cooks dinner gets to pick the music in the dining area. As it had been Mick's night, there was a lively disco number playing in the background as they ate their pasta. In between light conversation, Sara had been catching Jax wiggling in his seat out of the corner of her eye; after they had both finished, she wrapped her hand underneath his bicep and physically pulled him out of his seat and into a spot with enough floor space, much to their younger's surprise and protestation.

Jax was acutely aware of all of his teammates' attention being focused on the pair of them, and even Rip had emerged from his study to survey where this was going.

"Gideon, pause the music," when there is silence, Sara continues, "this is a lesson to all of you as much as Jax. When dancing, guys, you need to be confident in your movements; if you get things wrong, your partner won't care as long as you remain sure of yourself. The ladies' job is to remain pliant and leadable; it's also very important that we're able to take cues based on small signals such as a weight shift or the lift of a hand. Jax stay up here. Mick, do you actually know how to dance to this crap?"

By the end of the night, everyone has danced at least twice. Predictably, Mick and Sara are fairly good, but Stein, having been in his twenties during the height of disco, bests all of them. Ray and Kendra aren't terrible and seem to have a lot of fun with it. Once the youngest member of their team manages to get over his initial embarrassment, Sara and Kendra find him to be the most fun partner due to his ability to improvise and his flair for the dramatic. Captains Hunter and Cold are both awful, citing different excuses ( _"My hips don't move like that." "If I had a choice of erasing disco or Savage from the timeline, we'd still be on this ridiculous quest because disco is the worst."_ ) both of which are met with boos and hisses.

Despite differing opinions of the night, they manage to make it into a ritual whenever they all get together for dinner, something that happens about three times a week. Rip and Leonard both fare far better on a waltz, a step that Ray swears is more complicated than it's worth. Waltzing takes four different days for all of them to get the hang of. By day three, Jax, who is proving to be a very quick study when it comes to dance, starts bringing a high definition Polaroid camera he had Gideon make in an effort to catch the more memorable moments such as Palmer tripping so badly he brings Mick down with him (a shot Jax proudly catches mid-fall) and Snart and Stein high fiving while openly smiling.

When they start line dancing, the better dancers (this time it's Mick, Sara, and Rip) start playing a drinking game of sorts with the excuse of "evening the playing field." Every time the worst dancer (usually Ray) trips, take a shot. Every time Snart scoffs, take a shot. Every time Rip pretends he's not having fun, take a shot. There are other rules, but after half an hour, Mick is well and truly wasted; their captain makes it to an hour before he stumbles to his room, and even Sara wakes up the next morning at the insistent urge to vomit. They switch the game to swigs of beer after that, and when everyone starts participating, the rules are eventually written down and hung up next to the pictures from their Polaroid.

" _Drink when:_

 _Ray trips_

 _Leonard scoffs_

 _Rip pretends he's having a terrible time_

 _Stein mentions impressing Clarissa with his "moves"_

 _Kendra adds in an unnecessary twirl_

 _Jax complains about being awful when he's actually doing really well_

 _Sara tries to lead_

 _Mick calls dancing any variant of "stupid" but still readily participates_

 _Finish drink if:_

 _Sara purposefully trips_ _Leonard_

 _Ray and Kendra start making out_

 _Gideon mocks someone"_

It definitely isn't how Rip (or anyone, really) had imagined the team finally bonding as a unit, but the near seventy-five photos stuck to the wall of the dining area proved they had. Jax and Leonard share a favorite which is a close up of Ray's face when he learns the foxtrot is just a sped up waltz. Ray himself prefers the dramatic picture of him and Kendra doing the tango; in the picture, his black button up is unbuttoned to the bottom of his sternum, his hair is slicked back, and there's an obviously fake rose between his teeth. His girlfriend's head is thrown back in a laugh as Ray has her held in a low dip. Kendra is fond of the photo, but her favorite is of her and Mick from when they had revisited disco; they are both wearing hot pink feather boas courtesy of Gideon and in the middle of some kind of shimmy. Mick is also particularly fond of this picture as it had been one of the first times since his return he had felt like part of Team Legends again. Sara is a fan of the photo Kendra had managed to snap during east coast swing that has the blonde mid-turn out and Rip with eyes wide as he had just thrown out his back; the picture itself isn't that telling but it carries memories of her, Mick, Jax, and Leonard throwing "age" and "time" puns at their captain for the next few hours while he lays on the couch with a heating pad on his back. Stein and Rip both hold an affinity for a picture from line dance; the few days they covered it had seen the return of their Salvation hats and cowboy boots. The two men had been leaning against a wall each with their hats tipped low in the front and their right feet pressed against the wall behind them. Sara had gleefully broken away from the repetitive steps of 'Achy Breaky Heart' and snapped the photo.

As far as team bonding had gone, they all preferred dancing over other previous methods such as almost freezing to death, being tortured next to each other, or being forced into being a getaway driver. It seems to follow that the less hostile their bonding is, the less hostile they are to each other. Mick gradually stops looking at Rip and Leonard like he's debating who he wants to beat the crap out of first. Snart, although maintaining the frequency of verbal jabs at Ray, brings down the level of viciousness he tends to lace into his voice when addressing the younger man. Sara even starts to throw out personal comments about herself when they fit into the conversation rather than remaining closed off.

How dancing makes them come together to form a cohesive unit is a literal mystery to all of them, but all of them have to admit they're more perceptive to their teammates' intentions in a fight and are individually more nimble when it comes to hand to hand combat. How deep this new kinship goes is unknown until some little shithead lackey of Savage's starts threatening Firestorm for having captured and subdued him and Rip pistol whips him and growls, "you don't threaten my friends."

It's an odd sort of moment for them all. By that point, the fight has died down so they had all heard it. Jax's face portrays shock, a sentiment Rip assumes is mirrored by the other half of Firestorm. Kendra is looking at him fondly, and from what he can see of Ray's face behind the Atom suit, his expression resembles that of a puppy who has just been adopted. Sara looks smug, and the Rogues have the very telling smirk that signals an oncoming sarcastic comment.

The former Time Master clears his throat, "yes, well, back on the ship. He haven't got all day."

Despite him readily glossing over his show of affection, he gets at least four variations of the phrase "sure thing, friend," that range in tone from snarky (Leonard), to teasing (Sara and Jax), to genuine (Ray and Kendra). As they strap in for their next jump, Rip sighs and supposes it could be worse.

* * *

 **A/n:** so it's been a while since I've really liked anything enough to publish it. If you like it too, review or favorite. If you don't like it, please let me know why. Have a great day!


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